Spain's ACS buys U.S. civil works business J.F.White

Reuters Staff

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MADRID, Aug 11 (Reuters) - The U.S. subsidiary of construction and services group ACS has bought civil works business J.F.White to consolidate its position in the United States, the Spanish company said on Monday.

ACS, whose CEO Florentino Perez is also president of Spanish soccer club Real Madrid, has targeted assets and contracts abroad to offset the loss of business at home after the country’s decade-long housing boom collapsed in 2008.

It now runs Germany’s Hochtief, which in turn controls Australia’s Leighton Holdings.

ACS did not say how much its subsidiary, Dragados Construction USA, paid for J.F.White, which had turnover of $257 million last year and has an order book of 50 projects worth $350 million.

“The purchase allows Dragados to enter the market in New England and to consolidate itself as one of the leaders in civil works in the United States,” the company said in a statement.

J.F.White, which builds roads, tunnels and under-water structures, is currently leading a consortium building bridges in Longfellow and Fore River in Boston and is part of the group extending one of the lines on Boston’s metro railway system.

The acquired business will complement Dragados’s operations on the north-east coastline of the United States, ACS said in a statement. (Reporting By Sarah Morris; Additional reporting by Teresa Larraz; Editing by Paul Day and David Goodman)